* Browning, Pii^pa Passes. ^ R. T. W. Dtike.
234 THE RIGHT USE OF TIME
3. Is it because God gives us time so imperceptibly that none of us estimates the full value of time ? The individual moment is not looked upon as a precious grain of gold. One couM prove this in many ways ; but let us be satisfied with one way. Take, as an example, the names of our various methods of getting rid of time. Tliese indicate our undervaluation of time. Notice some of these names : " pastime," i.e., what consumes and uses up the hours easUy; "amusement," i.e., what prevents musing or meditation; " diversion," i.e., what turns aside ; " entertainment," i.e., what holds in suspense or equilibrium. These words, which are in common use, indicate and reveal a wrong condition of thought and feeling about time. They characterize it as a drug in the market to be got rid of at any price and in any quantity, whereas it is the most precious trust we have.
^ The illusion haunts us, that a long duration, as a year, a decade, a century, is valuable. But an old French sentence says, " God works in moments," — " En peu d'heure Dieu labeure." We ask for long life, but 'tis deep life, or grand moments that signify. Let the measure of time be spiritual, not mechanical. Life is un- necessarily long. Moments of insight, of fine personal relation, a smile, a glance — what ample borrowers of eternity they are '^
Forenoon and afternoon and night, — forenoon And afternoon and night, — forenoon and — what ? The empty song repeats itself. No more ? Yea, that is life : make this forenoon sublime, This afternoon a psalm, this night a prayer. And Time is conquered, and thy crown is won.'
IV.
Eeckoninq with a Purpose.
" So teach us to number our days, that we may get us an heart of wisdom."
The reckoning must be made with a purpose. Objectless meditations, and laments without a practical outcome, will avail nothing. The result of our counsels must be the attainment of " wisdom," and wisdom does not consist in the mere recognition of a truth, however momentous. It is a small thing to face the
* Emerson. ' Edward Rowlaud Sill.
PSALM xc. 12 235
fact of the shortness of human life, and call it an evil not to be avoided by any. The shallowest of heathen philosophies could tell us that. " So teach us to number our days, that we may get us an heart of wisdom."
1. Wisdom is a great word, because the idea it symbolizes is great. It is greater than knowledge, for knowledge symbolizes only what one has received. Knowledge signifies the ac- cumulation of facts, the gathering and retention of information, the reception on the part of our memories of whatever has been discovered. But wisdom represents that finer power, that higher characteristic of mind, which suggests the proper applica- tion of facts, the right use of knowledge, the correct direction of our faculties. Knowledge is full of error. The stubble and the chaff lie together in its chambers, and both represent it. But wisdom never errs. It separates the wheat from the chaff. It discards what is worthless, and retains only the valuable. Know- ledge represents the results of human industry. Wisdom re- presents the characteristic of Divinity. He whose heart is applied to wisdom has put himself in such a position that he can think divinely — think as God would think in his place.
^ Wisdom signifies an acquisition, by means of the soul's faculty of perception, of true knowledge; and the lack of such knowledge is ignorance. The idea, held by many people, that wisdom is a gift bestowed on a few privileged souls is erroneous. Wisdom is open to all, without price or favour. Wisdom, beauti- ful and divine, represents the highest development of the human soul. There is a path leading from the lowest to the highest, and it is open equally to all. As soon as a man begins to seek for knowledge and truth, he begins to advance out of ignorance and to acquire wisdom. The desire for knowledge and truth is itself an evidence of wisdom. ^
2. Now wisdom for time and for eternity does not lie in the pursuit of pleasure, not even in the pursuit of happiness, but in the cultivation of a rising life. This is not to say that happiness may never be hoped for or enjoyed when it comes. If we did not desire to be happy, we should be more than human, — or less. But the only way of obtaining happiness is to renounce altogether the pursuit of it. " Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his
' E. H. Hodgson, Glad Tidings, 42.
236 THE RIGHT USE OF TIME
righteousness, and all these things" — things which go to make life happy — " shall be added unto you." Self-consecration is the root of all true happiness. It is the one thing that ensures con- tentment here and hereafter; the one thing that will bring a man peace at the last. Only by losing our life in God can we hope to find it immortalized. Only by a dedication of all that we have, and are, and desire, shall we attain to the perfect existence. This is wisdom and this is happiness.